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August 21, 2011

Called to Write - Sulo Moorthy

C.S.Lewis once wanted to become a great poet. A ruling passion to achieve acclaim as a poet controlled him at one time. But after he came to Christ, another passion, his passion for Christ, must have over-ruled his earlier desire, because in one of his letters he openly admitted that his frantic desire to succeed as a great poet became almost an idol to him that God had to put an end to it.

C.S.Lewis, we have come to know and love through his writings, is well known internationally for his prose writing rather than for his poetry. If the author had clung to his dream of becoming a poet and not yielded to God's guiding, the world might have lost the chance to enjoy the reading of the Chronicles of Narnia, The Screwtape Letters, Mere Christianity.

I chuckle at the thought that even I once wanted to become a great writer. The truth is, until I turned 50 I had no idea what the word freelance writer truly meant. Creative cooking was my passion, not creative writing. Tired of being the guinea pig for my recipes, my husband decided to divert my attention by asking me to write a cookbook. His suggestion sounded splendid in my ears, but what did I know about writing a cookbook? Luckily, I came across a writers' correspondence course in a magazine and decided to enroll in the hope of writing my cookbook. But by the time I finished my course, I had completely forgotten about writing a cookbook. Instead, I started to write inspirational articles and devotionals for Christian market.

It's amazing how God's leading takes us to places where we would have never thought of going. I never intended to become a writer. But, here I am pounding the keys and writing stories or posting blogs. There are days when I want to just want to quit writing. But I don't. The following should give you a clue.

Once I was going through my old journals, when I came across something I had written some years back. It was the Lord’s Prayer I had written for my own understanding. I didn’t intend to share it with anyone or ever thought of submitting to any publication. But something within me nudged me to submit it for publication. I quickly discarded the idea, thinking that no publisher would ever want to publish something written by a lay person like me on the Lord's Prayer. There's no way I'm going to send it to any publisher, I said to myself and tried to push the thought away. But the nudging kept on going.

Finally I gave in, and submitted the article to the Edmonton Journal with the least expectation of getting an acceptance. I was living in Saskatoon at that time and I had no way of checking whether my article was published or not unless I went to the local library to get the Edmonton Journal. But I didn't bother to do that. Three Sundays later I received a phone call from a woman asking me whether I was the person who wrote the article, Let's pray with a clear understanding in the Edmonton Journal. When I said yes, she started thanking me for writing the article and telling me how it had helped her to better understand the Lord's Prayer. I had no idea how she obtained my phone number, but we spent at least a half an hour talking on the phone that morning. Her phone call surely affirmed me that when I'm called to write, I've to trust and obey.

I could point to the above reason as something that made a significant change in my writing life and keep me going.

5 comments:

This was very encouraging! There are lots of similar examples of people who, if they'd gotten their way instead of God's way - would have missed out on their true calling and the opportunity to bless others. Thanks fro reminding us to 'let go and let God...'

You blog makes me wonder how much we may have missed because others have sidelined God's call. Perhaps my own writing--and life generally--might have been more fruitful if I had heeded his call at all times.On the other hand, perhaps there are benefits that accrue to others, when we listen and respond to Him, that will remain unknown this side of Heaven.Thanks for the reminder and encouragement.

Thank you Tracy, Brenda and Bryan for your comments. I'm glad you all found my posting encouraging and beneficial.Yes, we need to listen to the inner voice more than to our inner critic.When Inscribe asked for submissions to choose the devotional columnist for Felloscript after Martha Anderson left,the same nudge urged me to submit my work for selection. I put it off thinking I'd have no chance to be selected amidst so many veteran writers. To my amazement, I got the assignment and served five years.

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"The author who benefits you most is not the one who tells you something you did not know before, but the one who gives expression to the truth that has been dumbly struggling in you for utterance." ~ Oswald Chambers